France set to ease lockdown and could be added to UK green list
France lockdown: Paris students queue for food parcels
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The French Government has announced that the country’s third national lockdown will start to ease from 3 May, with French people permitted to travel anywhere within the country. Outdoor areas of bars and restaurants will also reopen from mid-May.
French prime minister Jean Castex spoke to a news conference yesterday about the country’s plans to ease out of lockdown.
France experienced an increase in coronavirus cases earlier this month and a third national lockdown was put in place on 3 April, with a curfew for residents from 7pm until 6am.
However, the French Government hopes it will be able to lift the lockdown early next month as it declared that the country’s “third wave” of coronavirus cases is over.
Mr Castex said yesterday: “The third wave of the disease is behind us.”
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The prime minister said that people in France will be able to travel to anywhere within the country from 3 May.
This means that France may reopen its borders to international visitors sooner than expected, the Telegraph reported.
The republic could be added to the UK’s green list when the ban on international travel for Britons is lifted from 17 May.
The UK Government is expected to unveil the list at the beginning of next month, on 7 May.
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Other countries currently expected to be on the list are Israel, the US, Malta, Australia, and New Zealand.
However, the Australian and New Zealand governments have not yet said if they will permit British travellers into their countries.
Although there are now hopes that France may reopen to tourists this summer, the country’s average rate of new infections remains one of the highest in Europe.
It is the fifth country with the highest infection rate on the continent, behind only Cyprus, Sweden, Turkey, and Croatia.
France currently has an average cases rate of 341 per 100,000 people, while the UK’s rate is at 26 per 100,000 people.
Gerald Darmanin, the French interior minister, said that quarantine measures would be imposed on travellers returning to France from a number of countries, in order to curb the spread of new variants.
Up to 30 destinations are expected to make the UK’s green list, which means that holidaymakers travelling to and from those countries will not have to quarantine on return to the UK.
These countries include island destinations that may not be as well-known to Britons as the other locations on the list, such as Malta and Gibraltar.
Some of the islands expected to be on the green list are La Graciosa in the Canary Islands, Porto Santo in the archipelago of Madeira, and Tinos just off the coast of Mykonos.
It is expected that these spots will be less busy this summer than their better known neighbours.
As well as a green list, the UK’s travel traffic light system includes an amber list and a red list.
People travelling to and from countries on the green list will have to take three coronavirus tests in total, but will not have to quarantine, whereas people travelling to and from the amber countries will have to take the tests and quarantine at home for 10 days.
If opting to travel to and from the countries on the red list, holidaymakers will have to take three tests and quarantine in a hotel for 10 days, which they would have to pay for.
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